Our View: It’s time for all of this to stop

From time to time, the Editorial Board will receive an Op-Ed piece from a local author and thinks this author’s dissertation just nails it. It is the editorial we tried to or wanted to write, but didn’t.

In today’s Opinion section, Assemblyman Cameron Smyth delivers just such a home run. We couldn’t agree with him more.

Our objection is not to one ideological position or another. Our issue, like the assemblyman’s, is about behaviors.

Sign stealing and other immature shenanigans never help to win the respect of the electorate. To the average observer, it drags the whole community down.

As the assemblyman suggests, be a better candidate than to “bully and intimidate people into voting for you.” This type of politicking, including using economic pressures, leaves lasting scars in a community.

Our job as a newspaper is to bring these behaviors out into the light so that readers can see them and judge for themselves.

Sometimes there is a lack of immediate hard evidence and it is difficult to tell who the actual perpetrators are despite seemingly obvious circumstantial evidence.

The Signal is not making excuses here, but it is important for us to display an even hand when airing these community transgressions.

However, the level of vitriol and antics in this election season has become impossible to justify or ignore.

Smyth speaks about “a group of Republicans disenfranchised by another group of Republicans through the use of questionable procedural motions. Websites created for the sole purpose of making anonymous attacks against a candidate, followed by that candidate calling for a criminal investigation. Stalkers being stalked by rivals at local Republican club debates.”

The Santa Clarita Valley is one of the few places in California where Republicans are the majority party. Local party leadership should be working to set the standard for political behaviors, not giving voters reason to turn from them.

The Signal has hesitated on weighing in on local Republican Party or Club conflicts because internal squabbles should not warrant our attention. At the end of the day, the behaviors the assemblyman refers to and the people behind them do warrant our scrutiny because they can affect voting and community elections and outcomes.

It’s time to clean this mess up. If Republicans want to be relevant in Sacramento, they need to remain relevant in their own communities. Perhaps some fresh leadership is needed to end “the senseless infighting we’ve witnessed recently.”

We wholeheartedly support Assemblyman Smyth in his efforts and look forward to “lacing the gloves up with him.”